Liftoff of the Crew Dragon who became the Dragonship Endeavor! Yes, they should have named it Enterprise, but you can’t have everything. Naming a ship Endeavor has a long history from the HMS Endeavour (there were 11 or so of them) to the Space Shuttles Endeavour to Starfleet naming a few vessels Endeavour.
An amazing flight that was almost delayed again due to the weather, but ended up being a picture perfect liftoff. A launch of hope you could call it due to all the craziness and sadness in the world. It only takes about nine minutes to get to “space” (200 miles or so above the earth) and then it’s only a 19 hour trip to the ISS. One of the best parts that totally humanized the event, was the fact that Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley let their sons vote which of their stuffed animal dinosaurs was going to be sent into space as their zero-g indicator. Great choice boys! This was the first time in human history where a privately developed spaceship with astronauts on board launched. It’s also the first time that American astronauts have launched from American soil since 2011! Finally, when you think of it, Elon Musk has done magic in creating a spaceship that soars to the heavens, but more importantly he has created a little bit of hope during a very dark time.
Not much happened on the #LaunchAmerica NASA Social part on this day, because as all video tours and talks were shown on the previous days, but people were still tweeting and talking and posting on the Group #LaunchAmerica Virtual NASA Social Facebook page. 18,775 people were accepted (I don’t know the rates of those that applied and were not accepted), but I loved how international it was with people from all over the globe who were people just as excited and celebrating the launch just like we were doing here in the States. Regardless of your geological location, your age, your sex, what you do or don’t do, space is what brings us all together. Space which gives off the glow of adventure, science, exploration, hope, hope for the future, and the starlight promosie that we will have a future.
Here is the schedule for Saturday May 30
11 a.m. – NASA TV launch coverage begins
3:22 p.m. – Liftoff
4:09 p.m. – Crew Dragon phase burn
4:55 p.m. – Far-field manual flight test
TBD p.m. – Astronaut downlink event from Crew Dragon
6:30 p.m. – Post launch news conference at Kennedy with Elon Musk and NASA officials
(Images from https://www.spacex.com/launches/, https://www.nasa.gov/content/live-launch-america-nasas-spacex-demo-2-mission-to-the-international-space-station, https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive, https://twitter.com/NASA, https://twitter.com/elonmusk, https://twitter.com/AstroBehnken, https://twitter.com/SpaceX, and https://twitter.com/ExplorersClub)
